chocolate peanut butter pretzel tart

I’ve been bitten by a bug!!  No, I don’t need antibiotic ointment, and no, I don’t need an intervention (just yet).  Buoyed by my first place win of my Mexican Chocolate Biscotti,  I entered the Ghirardelli’s Chocolate Championship at the Puyallup Fair. I decided on a peanut butter cup-like dessert with a trendy pretzel crust.  It was an easy recipe with a ton of chocolate flavor, both of which were part of the grading criteria.  I’m a little worried about my Weight Watcher’s weigh-in, since I’ve made three in the past two days, making sure I had the correct ratio of ingredients (all in the name of science, of course).

In my haste to get out the door to meet the deadline, I forgot to take a “good” picture with my fancy camera.  Here’s a mediocre picture I took on my phone.

Drumroll please…..I placed third!  I won a huge basket of Ghirardelli’s chocolate and a very nice embroidered apron.  No cash prize for third, but I have a giant white ribbon for my trophy case.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Tart

• 2 cups crushed pretzels
• 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 5 ounces Ghirardelli’s semi-sweet chips
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• additional peanut butter, heated, for decoration
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine pretzels, melted butter and sugar in a bowl.  Press into the bottom and sides of a 9 inch tart pan with removable bottom.  Bake for 20 minutes and let cool.
  Combine peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar.  Spread onto the bottom of the cooled crust.
  Heat whipping cream until just before boiling.  Pour over chocolate chips and let stand 2 minutes.  Whisk together thoroughly.  Pour over peanut butter.
  Quickly drizzle melted peanut butter over ganache and swirl with a toothpick.  Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

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